pile of o'melays: March 2016

Friday, March 25, 2016

Sealing it up.

After insulating exterior walls and around the chimney I closed it all in (sheet-rock and plywood). Around the chimney didn't need rigid insulation since it is only exposed to the cold from the crawl space and attic. The exterior of the house needed a vapor barrier of sorts. I cut rigid foam pieces and the spray-foam glued, sealed them in place. Not a perfect vapor barrier but until we re-side our house it will have to do.

The ceiling was difficult but Tabitha and Tristan were a big help. The ceiling in this half of the kitchen is 9ft tall. I made a small scaffold--of sorts.

This plywood wall will be tiled and will have shelves and pot holders so I decided to put plywood behind to support everything. This way i won't have to find studs and be constrained as to where I put brackets and supports. The plywood wall also doubled as a sheer-wall around the chimney--safety first.

Here is where the sink will go. It will have an outlet for the 180° hot-water dispenser under the sink.

This is the wall behind Hieronymus (the Convection oven).

I had to put in heavy gauge 220 wire for his power needs.

Most of the mud-work is done. This weekend will be final mudding at the transition between stages, trim, primer and painting.

We were hoping to paint the hallway but these recent rains point toward a mystery. The freshly plastered hallway wall seems to show signs of moisture. This is likely due to a mis-connected drain vent in the wall cavity. This would be the second occasion where I discovered something of this nature.

So, adding to the above list, we have to tear into the hallway wall. Unexpected more demolition--sad, so very sad...

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Toly and my weekend under the house.

Toly is awesome help, first and foremost he is NOT scared of spiders. Second, he can be counted on. He will go get things with incredible accuracy. We finished the hot water portion of the plumbing. This involved a re-circ line back to the water heater. This keeps warm water at the fixtures.

We also did some drainage plumbing, including the vent through the roof. This shows the under sink lines. There is a hot water supply for an instant 180° water dispenser--remember the dream kitchen thing?

Toly and Tristan learned how to sweat (solder) copper pipe.

I also rewired the second half of the kitchen.

Outlets everywhere...

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Trying to get up to date.

We had to tear up the floor. There was water damage from years of leaks. Tabitha counted eight layers of flooring. The worst was the upper most layer of particle board. It was nasty, spongy and nailed with far too many ring shank nails.

I plumbed new gas line to where Merrick the stove will live. It is flexible stainless steel line. I had to get certified to install it but it is great.

The new subfloor really changed how sturdy things felt.

I used a heavy duty ratchet strap to jack up an inferiorly supported joist. Going into the crawl space is an event and must be avoided if possible.

The final piece of sub-flooring.

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Closed in... it's spring 2016

The kitchen is taking every available free moment these days. Sorry for the delay in my updates.

Well, it is really spring around here. Spring in Berkeley is a special time for those olfactory appreciators of blossoms. The smell of jasmine is pervasive wafting from every direction. It is singular as the most missed thing when we lived elsewhere.

Gigi is at that fabulous age of sweet, precocious and loving joy. She is always in the fray and deeply loved by everyone in her life. In fact, she has so many fans that it has skewed her sensibilities. She demands that everyone dote on her with great success.

Tristan is taking piano lessons from a wonderful instructor. He has brought Tristan to an entirely new level in a few short weeks. Kassi is taking Violin and loves it. Toly is taking ukelele. He will make hearts swoon on camping trips in a few years.

The kitchen is leaps ahead from my last post. It is all downhill from here.

This is the chimney wall.

I had to repair some of the mortar and deal with the pneumonia hole.

I entertained mortaring it shut and calling it quits but this is exactly where our new range hood will go and I decided to use the chimney as the range hood vent.

This was my solution. I adapted some venting into a transition for the vent.

This wall also is where we found some wonderful artifacts of significance.

Yes, that card on the right is a Ty Cobb rookie card. We sent them to a dear friend. Since we are not sportzie people we cannot appreciate them properly.

The ceiling had another treasure trove of artifacts, photos nicknacks and random tidbits. Nothing else of value but interesting none-the-less.

Here is a photo of all the rubble from the walls.

This was where the old window was. I reframed in a smaller window to sit directly above the kitchen sink.

Since this is Tabitha's dream kitchen and she thought she might want a pot filler, I plumbed it into the recirc line to the upstairs bathroom. Now she'll be able to fill large pots directly on Merrick the stove. Yes it is on the hot water line but we have an instant hot water heater that doesn't have the things that are bad for you as in normal tank water heaters.